Annual Report 2017/18

Introduction to the breakthrough project

Making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old in is one of eight breakthrough projects established to drive some of the work to fulfil our ambition for Leeds to be a city which is both compassionate and has a strong economy,

The breakthrough projects are designed to identify new ways of working within the council and with our partners to achieve the best outcomes for the city. Crucially, we see this ambition as fundamentally connected to prioritising the needs of older people - a city which sees older people being valued and as assets. This is also reflected in the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2016-2021. Creating an Age Friendly City where people age well is highlighted as one of our key priorities in the city-wide plan. This is our second Making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old in Annual Report, and I am pleased to see how the breakthrough project has progressed since it began. This work is vital for several reasons:  We have an ageing population; the 2011 Census shows that there are almost 150,000 people in Leeds are aged 60 and over (accounting for almost 20% of the total population). This number will continue to increase with the number of people aged 50+ expected to rise to 256,585 by 2021, with those aged 80+ increasing to 39091.  Leeds older people have already told us that they want Leeds to be an Age Friendly City.  Inequalities in health are a key issue for older people with ill health and social impacts affecting the poorest in the city disproportionately.  Making Leeds the ‘Best City to Grow Old’ will have a hugely positive impact on our ability to deliver other breakthrough projects and supports an ‘invest to save’ approach, notably across health and social care.

Our approach one of citizenship. This means everybody can do something to support this project and help to achieve also the wider ambition we have set for the city. We are working across the council and with our external partners as we recognise that to achieve our ambition for Leeds to be the Best City to Grow Old in, this cannot be accomplished by the Council alone. Everyone has a part to play and everyone has a stake in making this city a place where our older people are seen as assets in our communities who are fundamentally valued.

In 2017 the council and Leeds Older People’s Forum signed an important partnership with the Centre for Ageing Better which is bringing additional resources to the city to help us achieve our ambitions, and test out new ways of working, particularly in housing and community transport. Leeds was selected as a partner for the Centre for Ageing Better because of this breakthrough project, which demonstrates our commitment to making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old in. Cllr Rebecca Charlwood

Our approach

Our approach to Making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old in is a citizenship approach, applying to the entire population. This approach ensures that there is a strong focus on social networks within neighbourhoods and the city; promotes social capital and participation; age-proofs and develops universal services; reduces social exclusion and works to change social structure and attitudes. It therefore does not include all the programmes of work in relation to health and social care for older people whilst recognising that there are obvious links and synchronicities.

Building on previous work

The project takes forward Leeds’ long history of working with older people. Leeds Older People’s Forum came into existence in 1994 and we have celebrated the International Day of Older People in Leeds since 1998. The Time of our Lives Charter and action plan, 2012 to 2016, built on the previous work around ‘Healthy and Active Lives for Older People’ and ‘Older Better’. Work progressed under the Time of Our Lives action plan on key priorities, most notably work led by Public Health and Adult Social Care, but also in Parks, Sports, Libraries Museums and cultural organisations in the city.

Partnership Working

Age Friendly Leeds Partnership

The Age Friendly Leeds Partnership (AFLP) is a system wide, place-based partnership that brings together the statutory, voluntary and private sectors to:

 Address the priorities identified by older people in relation to making Leeds an Age Friendly City;  To build awareness of Age Friendly priorities and actions;  Assess how Age Friendly the city is against the World Health Organization’s eight Age Friendly domains; Outdoor Spaces and Buildings, Housing, Transportation, Social Participation, Civic Participation and Employment, Community Support and Health Services, Communication and Information, Respect and Social Inclusion;  To support Age Friendly initiatives in our communities and other broader initiatives which help us to work towards Leeds becoming an Age friendly City.  Support staff training and development, including increasing awareness of the issues around ageing so that they can improve their services and plan their own ‘Ageing Well’;

 Developing key linkages with other groups that enhance health and social care services for older people e.g. integrated health and social care, and mental health;  Work to challenge and remove the structural and social barriers faced by older people to independence, inclusion and equality.

Ageing Friendly Leeds Partnership members

Centre for Ageing Better

The Centre for Ageing Better is an independent charitable foundation working for a society where everybody enjoys a good later life.

All Ageing Better’s work starts from the perspective of people in later life. Ageing Better is driven by evidence, including evidence from lived experience, and focused on change for better later lives. It is part of the What Works Network – an initiative which aims to improve the way government and other organisations create, share and use high quality evidence for decision-making.

With a ten-year endowment from the Big Lottery Fund, Ageing Better is independent from government and works collaboratively with a diverse range of organisations to create measurable change for the long-term. Further information can be found at: www.ageing-better.org.uk

Ageing Better works on a range of priority topic areas, with the aim that as many people as possible are able to say:

I feel prepared for later life  I feel confident to manage major life changes  I have a plan for my finances, my home, my care needs, and what happens when I or my partner dies  I have the skills I need for later life

I am active and connected  I am in fulfilling work and/or I am making a valued contribution to my community  I have regular social contact with other people and some close relationships  I keep physically and mentally healthy and active

I feel in control  I live in a home and a neighbourhood suited to me  I have care, support and services that help me live my life

The Centre for Ageing Better has selected Leeds as a partner and has entered into a five year partnership agreement with the Council and Leeds Older People’s Forum. The purpose of the partnership is to enable Leeds to adopt evidence-based practice, to pilot innovative approaches and to generate new evidence of ‘what works’ for ageing well that can be disseminated locally, regionally, nationally and internationally by Ageing Better, the council, LOPF and other stakeholders.

Together we aim to go further and faster towards creating a better later life for people in Leeds, now and in the future, and to the benefit of older people in the city and further afield. We will ensure the voices, needs and preferences of older people are reflected in what we achieve, and how we achieve it.

This agreement complements the strategic commitment by the council and the Leeds Health & Wellbeing Board to become the Best City in the UK to Grow Old In, and its work as an Age-friendly City. Though the council, LOPF and Ageing Better are the lead partners, through these initiatives the partnership seeks to engage a broad network of stakeholders whose engagement and activities matter for a good later life in Leeds, including the NHS, voluntary and community, and private sectors.

The Centre for Ageing Better, the council and LOPF share the following goals:

 For more people in Leeds to enjoy a good later life, in terms of better health, financial security, social connections and wellbeing  For Leeds to be better recognised locally, regionally, nationally and internationally for its work in ‘Making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old In’, and as an Age-friendly City  For the partners and others in Leeds and the region to apply evidence-based practices, and to develop and test innovative approaches to ageing to address inequalities in later life.  This partnership has brought additional resource into Leeds including a programme and projects manager based in Leeds to work on the three identified priorities which are:

The initial priorities for this partnership are:

 Addressing older people’s housing needs through an Older People’s Housing Strategy;  Addressing gaps in public transport by developing innovative community transport solutions;  Community research to explore the motivations, barriers & enablers older people face in contributing to their community.

Celebrating the signing of the partnership agreement, Lord Geoffrey Filkin (Centre for Ageing Better), Cllr Rebecca Charlwood (Leeds City Council), Bill Rollison MBE (Leeds Older Peoples’ Forum) National and international partnerships

Leeds is a member of:

UK Network of Age Friendly cities - a group of cities from across the UK that are collaborating to bring about change in the way that cities respond to population ageing. By developing and sharing policy and best practice, network members are working together to improve the experience of growing older in cities, and help people age better.

Eurocities - the network of major European cities which brings together the local governments of over 130 of Europe's largest cities and 40 partner cities. Relevant to this breakthrough project is Leeds participation in the EuroCities Urban Ageing Network. Leeds hosted the January 2017 meeting of this network which provided an opportunity to showcase some of our Age Friendly work including smart cities, arts and culture and the neighbourhood networks.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Age Friendly Cities - The WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities (the Network) was established to foster the exchange of experience and mutual learning between cities and communities worldwide. Leeds has been a member since 2013.

Action Plan

The Making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old In World Health Organisation Domains action plan has been developed to take account of  Outdoor spaces and buildings; what we have already achieved and to take forward  Transportation; the ideas and actions from our ‘Best City to Grow  Housing;  Social participation; Old in’ event which took place in March 2015. The  Respect and social inclusion; event brought together a wide range of  Civic participation and organisations across the public, private and third employment; sector to engage them in the development of the  Communication and information; breakthrough project using outcome based  Community support and health accountability methodology as a framework for services. discussion. Using the eight World Health Organisation (WHO) Age Friendly City domains, delegates worked in groups to identify the outcomes we should be working towards, explored the underlying issues and ideas for action, and considered how we measure our progress. Structured around the eight WHO domains, the action plan sets out the overall ambition for each domain together with ‘I statements’ which describe how older people have told us they want to feel. Officers from across the council bring quarterly updates to the breakthrough project board on how their services are contributing to the breakthrough project action plan. This section of the report provides an overview of progress and next steps for each of the eight domains which form the action plan. Outdoor spaces Our ambition: and buildings Leeds is a welcoming city, accessible to all where older people feel, and are, safe.

Older people tell us… “When I go out I want to feel safe and enjoy public spaces and buildings that are clean and accessible”. “I want to feel confident that I will be able to take a rest and use a toilet when I need to”.

Progress so far:

A Dementia Friendly Garden was launched at Springhead Park in Rothwell on 17 May. Features include dementia friendly parking, hand rail, benches with arm rests, wide flat path, trail leaflet and a noticeboard. Peter Smith of Dementia Friendly Rothwell won ‘Partner of the Year’ at the LCC Environment and Communities award for his work on this garden.

Dementia Friendly Garden, Rothwell

Older people are one section of the population benefiting from work to improve access at a number of parks and open spaces including:

 Five disabled parking bays recently created at Middleton park  Footpath improvements and benches installed at Bramley Falls Wood Park  Access improvements including footpaths at Churwell Park, Morley  Footpath improvements at Blenheim Square, Farnley Hall Park, Kirk Lane Park, Queen’s Park, Scarth Park and Chapel Allerton Park  Improvements to the footpath which links Yeadon Banks with Chevin Forest Park  Stanningley Park footpaths have been refurbished so they are more accessible.  Access improvements to Ledston Luck nature reserve, Keswick Bridleway No. 2, the Trans-Pennine trail at the Royal Armouries and Dartmouth park  The three mobility scooters that are available to hire at Golden Acre Park have been replaced with brand new ones!

Temple Newsam Golf Course – one course has been reduced to nine holes to provide a more playable facility for those struggling to play 18 holes.

Outdoor gyms have been installed in Roundhay Park, Nunroyd Park and Drighlington Moor

Wade’s Charity is providing funding in partnership with the Parks & Countryside to bring a part-time Ranger to Gotts Park. The Wade’s Ranger, started work at the beginning of May 2017. Using Gott’s Mansion as his base, he is working with the Friends Group and Golf Club to run a range of events and practical volunteering activities in the two Parks.

Seven major parks achieved the National Green Flag award which means they have achieved certain standards expected of a high quality park including being welcoming, safe and providing equal access for all.

The Arium – the new Parks and Countryside plant nursery has now opened. As well as providing a means to grow the plants for the city’s flower beds in a more efficient and sustainable way, it’s much more visitor friendly – fully accessible and with accessible parking and toilet, dementia friendly flooring etc and has a shop selling surplus plants and a café – it’s already proved really popular with people of all ages but specifically with older people.

Road safety

Schemes to reduce the number of accidents and improve access for pedestrians, particularly young children and older people, have been implemented Road safety schemes have been implemented on Dewsbury Road, Kirkstall Road and Harehills Road

Come in and Rest

To help older people feel confident in going out the ‘Come in and Rest’ campaign was launched in January 2018 to encourage businesses in Leeds to offer a seat to older people. This was modelled on the successful ‘Take a Seat’ campaign in Nottingham and Manchester.

The Come in and Rest scheme officially launched on 25 January 2018

Next steps:

 Access and other site improvements to parks will continue to be made where funding allows.  A new park is being developed in Moortown – this will provide local people access to a new public green space in an area where there isn’t currently a park within walking distance.  Parks & Countryside are currently working with Leeds Parks Bowls Partnership to promote bowling, and encourage more use of the bowling greens in our parks, as they are decreasing in popularity yet offer a great opportunity for gentle exercise and social interaction.  The 2017 Pedestrian Crossing Review Includes eight proposed Zebra crossings, two specifically aimed at assisting older pedestrians.15 new 20mph zones/ limits to be implemented in 2017-18.  Continue to roll out the ‘Come in and Rest’ scheme.

Transport Our ambition: Older people are able to access a broad range of affordable and accessible transport options to get about the city easily”

Older people tell us… When I waiting for a bus I want to wait in a shelter and I want to feel safe. I want to get on and off a bus easily. When I am on a bus I want to be treated with respect by the driver and offered help if I need it; I want to travel to places on accessible and affordable public transport.

Transport can have a range of positive outcomes for older people including maintaining access to friends and family and enabling access to vital services such as healthcare and also leisure and retail activities. All of which contribute to the health and wellbeing of older people and reduce social isolation.

Progress so far:

Transport is one of the priority areas that the Centre for Ageing Better are supporting. The problem to be solved has been defined as: How can we make the journeys in and between communities around Leeds easier for people in later life through integrating community transport provision and expanding volunteer driver schemes? This work is managed by an Older Person’s transport group chaired by Cllr Wakefield (Chair of WYCA transport committee) with representatives from the council, Centre for Ageing Better, WYCA, University of Leeds and Leeds Older People’s Forum.

Residents from different parts of Leeds have had the opportunity to discuss the issues at three transport workshops in Horsforth, Richmond Hill and Swillington to draw out the issues for residents in different parts of Leeds. Key findings from the workshops are:  There is clear demand and need for flexibility and choice in modes of transport to cater for different needs and preferences. This requires an integrated solution- community transport and volunteer car schemes should both be considered as part of the same intervention to address gaps in existing provisions.  The variety of user needs makes it important that there is a diverse enough fleet to accommodate these needs- including sufficient wheelchair accessible options.  There are some clear gaps in existing provision that could be targeted- medical journeys and personal leisure trips were where the main gaps were evident.

Next Steps: Innovative solutions to address the identified problems will be developed with the support of transport consultants STC commissioned by the Centre for Ageing Better focusing on:

1. Capacity analysis- assessing and mapping the supply of vehicles, volunteer drivers and latent capacity of community transport provision within Leeds 2. Technological- sourcing of or identification of requirements for a technological solution to enable the management, scheduling and booking of community transport across multiple providers and the coordination of volunteer drivers 3. Organisational development- working with organisations to identify existing capacity and develop their ability and motivation to engage with the developed solution.

Housing Our ambition: Older people are able to access a broad range of affordable and accessible transport options to get about the city easily”

Older people tell us… When I am at home I want to feel safe and free of anti-social behaviour. I want to have the support and advice I need to remain as independent as possible. I want to feel financially secure in my home I want to be able to go out when I want to.

The Strategic Housing Market Assessment anticipates that Leeds will have a significantly greater proportion of older people by 2026 than in 2010, with a 16%

increase in households aged over 65, a 30% increase in over 75s and a 70% increase in households aged over 85 years. In absolute terms the projection suggests that across Leeds there will be an additional 22,000 households with a head of household aged over 65. Most households over 65 are likely to continue to live in standard housing which needs to be capable of adaptation. 75% of older people live in private sector housing. Me and My Home Housing is the second of the priority areas that the Centre for Ageing Better is supporting. Feedback from previous consultations with older people and housing providers has informed the key priorities which are:  A need for clear information on the housing advice and support options for older people;  A need for support / advice available to private renters / owner occupiers;  Ensuring that social prescribers are aware of housing options / issues;  Knowledge of accessibility housing;  Opportunity for older people to influence planning developments.

The work to put these priorities into action is managed by an Older People’s Housing Group, led by the council’s Older People’s Team (Public Health) with representatives from the council’s housing service, Leeds Older Peoples Forum, the Centre for Ageing Better, and Care and Repair England. Leeds Older Peoples’ Forum have also developed their own Housing Strategy from their own experience and workshops with older people and work with the council.

Housing Need

A Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) was undertaken through a household survey to understand the housing needs of Leeds up to 2033. As part of this assessment the consultants ran a workshop was to explore older persons housing requirements to feed into the SHMA and complement the household survey and stakeholder consultation.

SHMA older people’s workshop 11

Sheltered Housing

Residents of Bennett Court Sheltered Scheme were moved out of their homes to allow extensive remodelling work to take place to remove shared bathrooms and improve accessibility. Work is now completed and people have moved back into their modern remodelled apartments.

Residents in 53 sheltered housing schemes across Leeds now have improved access into and round the communal areas of their schemes to enable them to be more independent and feel safer in their home environment. This includes modernisation of communal rooms to create a friendlier environment.

Housing Leeds has social inclusion at the forefront of its support model with a key focus on developing and promoting wellbeing activities. Activities taking place in the 77 schemes where there is a communal room have increased during the year and there are now 1600 different activities taking place every month. Activities include social events, meals and keep fit. Links with the Neighbourhood Network Schemes are being increased to encourage networks to use the communal facilities and integrate residents of the sheltered schemes into the wider community.

In November 2017 the trial of a new support model, Retirement LIFE (Living in a Friendly Environment) was launched in three areas of Leeds. The model aims to modernise sheltered housing schemes to offer more on site support to complexes with higher levels of need and a greater focus on wellbeing activities to promote social inclusion. Early feedback is positive.

Extra Care Housing

The Leeds vision for extra care housing is to work with partner organisations to deliver more than 1000 units of extra care housing by 2028. To support this vision, in July the Council’s Executive Board gave approval to support the delivery of an Extra Care Development Programme, giving agreement to the dedication of sites for the development of extra care housing. The Council has made available £30 million in Housing Revenue Account Resources to support the delivery of the programme. A Project Team has been established which has been working on the development of an extra care specification and proposed procurement model and documentation for the programme.

Next steps

 Develop an action plan for the Council’s Housing Strategy priority area on older people.

 Issue of invitations to tender for the next sites for extra care housing.

 Remodelling work has now begun at Union Court, Otley and is planned to take around 12 months to complete.

 A more detailed evaluation of LIFE will take place prior to rolling out across the city.

Civic Our ambition: Participation and Older people in Leeds actively participate in the city through Employment education, employment training and volunteering.

Older people tell us…

I want to contribute to my community through volunteering, helping family friends and neighbours, supporting local businesses; I want to be involved in decisions concerning my community;

Our ideas about ageing are changing. People are living longer and continuing to contribute to their communities in all areas of life - working longer, helping with child care, volunteering and providing strong community leadership. Volunteering is a way of keeping a life for older people – it’s good for their well-being as well as an important contribution to community life. A national study1 suggested that older people currently provide informal volunteer services to their community of over £10 billion – each year – and that figure is predicted to grow as our older population increases. Approximately 39% of 65-74 year olds volunteer. Progress so far: Adult Learning The Adult Learning Programme provides a broad range of learning that brings together adults of Digital skills courses targeted at older different ages and backgrounds. Older learners people such as those offered by Age UK Leeds are helping to address the digital are included as a priority group with a particular divide in the city. focus on social isolation and digital. Recruitment of older learners, aged 50+ continues to be  Silver Surfers digital inclusion for people successful. To date, 928 older learners have aged 55+ commenced courses this academic year. 409  Digital Angels helping isolated people aged 50+ in south Leeds to get funded (44%) of those older learners reside in Leed’s through Time to Shine. most deprived neighbourhoods (20% LSOAs), 60 of which reside in the 1% most deprived LSOAs.

The Leeds Adult Learning course finder website was launched on 11 September and has been an incredible success with much positive feedback from providers,

1 The Value of Older People's Volunteering 2015

stakeholders and potential learners. In the first three weeks 4,937 people searched for courses resulting in 22,551 Page Views of more than 400 Courses that were being advertised for the start of academic year 2017-18 autumn term.

Employment

Reed In Partnership (RiP), delivering the Back to Work programme (funded by the European Structural and Investment Fund), has a weekly presence in a number of Community Hubs and use the Jobshops and other Council services to recruit to their programme. This is working well so far and their integration into Jobshops has resulted in a number of referrals to their provision, including existing Jobshop customers who are 50+.

Overcoming barriers

58 year old Mark had been unemployed for more than five years, suffered with health problems and was struggling to use a computer to find work. Through the Back to Work programme Mark has received support to overcome his health problems and learn new skills, and he is now in paid work. Read more about Mark’s story on the Reed in Partnership website.

The ESIF funded Skills, Training and Employment Pathways (STEP) Project started in May. The aim of the project is to provide a targeted but flexible programme of activities enabling long term unemployed people to get back into sustainable employment. This targeted provision will support around 1500 long term unemployed people in Leeds, and all participants receive as a minimum:

 an initial assessment to establish level of capability, skills and aptitude to identify any specific barriers to employment;

 information, advice and guidance;

 job/sector-specific training or support and an element of work experience if appropriate;

 mentoring support including referral to other relevant agencies;

 job search support (linking to the Council’s Community Hubs/Jobshop provision where appropriate);

 guaranteed job interviews;

 specialist support to tackle specific barriers e.g. mental health, drug or alcohol problems;

 in-work support

To date we have had 383 starts on to the programme, of which 149 were 50 or over when they started the 12 month programme. Of those starting 65 have already progressed in to work 17 of whom were 50+.

Volunteering

During 2017 VAL analysed data it had collected from nearly 700 people volunteering in Leeds, this showed that more than third of people volunteering in Leeds were aged 55-84 and 68% of these older volunteers were actively volunteering at least once a week.

This data showed that older volunteers were involved in a wide range of activities including classroom support, museums and libraries, lunch clubs, advice work, befriending and many more activities. 98% of older volunteers said they were satisfied with the amount of support they were receiving while volunteering, and the same number, 98%, said they felt that their volunteering was contributing to their community.

Older volunteers were asked: “What are the main reasons you started volunteering” and the three most popular reasons given were:

1. To Support a cause/organisation that they cared about 2. To give back to the community. 3. Because helping others improve your wellbeing.

Older volunteers were asked: “What are the best things about volunteering to you?” The four most popular answers were:

1. I Enjoy it. 2. It gives me a chance to make a difference. 3. I feel like I’m giving back 4. Being able to meet new people

98% of older volunteers said they felt their volunteering was successfully contributing to their organisation. Some of the things that older volunteers said to us in this survey included:

“It's great - even when you've been out in the cold for a couple of hours, or have a 10 page form to fill in.” “I am a volunteer in a volunteer led and volunteer run organisation and the motivation is great. The newest volunteer is in 5th year with us and others 6, 7 and 8 years.”

“I am 82 years old and volunteered because my daughter had Difficulty reading fluently. She was afraid of the teacher, went on to Nottingham University and a 1st class degree.”

An excellent example of the volunteering contribution older people make to the city is the ‘In Bloom’ groups. The majority of ‘In Bloom’ volunteers are aged 60+. During 2017 Leeds was very successful in the Yorkshire in Bloom competition including receiving gold medals and being the category wins for the city of Leeds, City Centre, Barwick in Elmet, Kippax and Horsforth. Several of the local parks also won awards including Horsforth Hall park, The Hollies, In bloom volunteers Churwell Urban Woodland and Cross Flatts park which all won platinum (the highest) awards.

Next steps:  Increased focus on recruiting adults into learning from the 6 priority localities and disadvantaged groups.

 Continue to engage older people in adult learning.

 Continue to develop the STEP programme and increase referals, programme starts and job outcomes.

Social Our ambition: Participation No-one is lonely; there are a range of opportunities for people to live healthy, active and fulfilling lives in Leeds

Older people tell us… I enjoy a range of leisure and social activities; I enjoy taking part in physical activities; I enjoy having time to read, watch TV and do what I choose. I don’t want to feel lonely;

There are 38,326 one person households where the lone occupant is aged 65 and over. It is estimated that around 15%, or 37000 older people can be described as lonely or socially isolated, due to factors including fear, living alone, retirement, personal and financial circumstances, the digital divide and ill equipped outdoor spaces.

National studies show that physical activity decreases with age. 75% of men and 76% of women over 65 are in the low activity group. Participating in regular physical activity helps to prevent or slow down the development of the major challenges to health and wellbeing that people face as they grow older ( Heart disease; type 2 diabetes, loss of muscle strength, reduction in bone density – leading to fractures, Osteoporosis; Loss of mobility; Memory problems and dementia; Increased risk of injury due to falling.

Dancing in Time

The community contemporary dance programme ‘Dancing in Time’ has had its feasibility study published in the open access journal Biomed Central Geriatrics. Outcomes have been positive in particular the evidence that participants increased their activity levels and were able to statistically reduce Timed Up and Go (TUG) times which is the time it takes to stand from sitting and walk around a cone placed 3 meters away and sit back down on their chair. The reduced time taken to complete the TUG test is an important measure to evidence the feasibility of the programme.

Bat and Chat

A further 14 Bat and Chat activators have completed the short course on 9th February delivered through Table Tennis England. Activators are provided with the knowledge and skills to facilitate a fun and inclusive session to older adults. Activators receive advertising material, session manual and free equipment to support the delivery of regular sessions. The second course had seen activators from existing Bat and Chat centres for example libraries, Carers Leeds and from new organisations. Therefore increasing the provision of Bat and Chat sessions across Leeds.

Active Ageing

A bid submitted to the Active Ageing Fund (Sport England) to develop, trial and roll out a new physical activity programme aimed at inactive older people was unsuccessful. Partners involved agreed to continue to work together to focus on increasing capacity in areas of priority to offer older people the opportunity to access physical activity provision such as table tennis, netball and cricket.

£50,000 Public Health funding has been secured to increase sustainable fun activity for older people, a further £9,000 for an older people physical activity campaign and finally £4,250 to devise a short training course for existing physical activity providers.

Time to Shine – Tackling Social Isolation -

As this programme entered its second year the projects have been able to identify what works/doesn’t work and make changes so that they can reach people who are more isolated.

Learning from the projects has been gathered and shared with partners across the city. A video training module on social isolation has been developed for West Yorkshire Fire Service as part of its ‘safe and well’ visit.

In September Time to Shine, launched 'Loneliness through a Lens' a photographic display looking at Social Isolation and Loneliness through the eyes of Leeds residents aged fifty and over.

All the people in the photographs live in Leeds and partake in activities provided by at least one of the Neighbourhood Network Schemes. All have experienced feelings

of isolation and loneliness, either personally or through friends, but the causes and how these feelings manifest themselves are all different.

The display gave a snapshot into people's lives and to show that feelings of isolation and loneliness can happen at any time, to anybody.

The second commissioning round of Time to Shine went live on 9th October and closed on 1st December. Eleven bid development sessions were held to support potential applicants, with 26 separate organisations attending.

Twenty two applications were received in total; fifteen for the Creating Supportive Opportunities strand, five for the Connections strand and two for the Changes.

An application process to find older people to be involved in the decision-making panels resulted in eighteen older people coming forward. Of these, thirteen had not been involved in our commissioning processes before. Following a support and training session, eleven of these older people became panel members, and took part in assessing the applications and agreeing which ones should go forward to the interview stage.

Leeds hosted the annual Ageing Better conference in October. This conference brings together the 14 areas with lottery funding to reduce loneliness and social isolation. Representatives from Manchester and the Isle of Wight have also visited Leeds to learn about some of the Time to Shine projects.

Arts and culture

Heydays, its long-standing creative programme for over 55s, taking place on Wednesdays since 1990. It is the largest and longest-running arts programme for older people in UK theatre. Around 300 older people attend each week to take part in everything from drama and dance to sculpture and creative writing, supported by a team of professional artists. Heydays is a vibrant, creative community where skills are developed and stories are shared. The Museums and Galleries have a range of activities for older people including:

The Sociable History Club and the 1152 Club at Leeds City Museum and Kirkstall Abbey which provide regular opportunities for people over 55 to meet and enjoy talks and presentations on a wide variety of local history topics. The clubs now attract up to 40-50 people for each session.

25 people attended a 1940’s themed street party the Abbey House museum with a slide show, objects to reminisce over, singing and afternoon tea.

Spinners of Aire and the Knit and Natter groups meet weekly at Leeds Industrial Museum

Lotherton History Group meets every Monday to research the local area and connections to the Estate. The group worked with a group of ex- miners to research the Gascoigne Mines, in partnership with the Swillington Elderberrries Group. “I feel like I’ve come back to life again” (One of the ex-miners)

Outreach and In Reach Workshops including tours and visits by older peoples groups and handling sessions/bespoke workshops on topics of interest related to the collections and exhibitions.

Leeds Libraries have a number of facilitated groups within libraries including Golden days at Morley Library and Rothwell Community Hub, Hunslet Remembered at Hunslet Library, and a shared reading group at Seacroft Library.

There are a large number of Readers groups where people can get together and talk about and review their most recent book and craft groups from knit and natter, book art, colouring cafés.

Libraries offer a wide and varied book selection in different formats from large print to talking books, eBooks, eAudio and online magazines.

For people who can’t get out Library At Home Volunteers will choose some books and deliver them to their home.

Digital drop in sessions and IT learning sessions aimed at older people hopefully teach them skills to enable them to access a world of culture via the World Wide Web.

Working with people with dementia

The Leeds branch of the Dementia Action Alliance (DAA) supports groups and organisations to help make Leeds a dementia-friendly city, and brings together everyone in Leeds who wants to make a difference for people living with dementia, including families and carers, so people can still participate in everyday life and maintain as much independence as possible.

Leeds DAA is a partnership between Leeds Older People’s Forum and Alzheimer’s Society working with Leeds City Council, sponsored by the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board.

Peer support for people with dementia and their carers is available through groups, cafes and memory drop in sessions. There are 49 ‘Memory Cafes’ offering the opportunity to meet up, enjoy activities and know that they are not alone in living with dementia. There are also a further 17 groups focused on singing and music that also give these opportunities.

More information is available at www.leeds.gov.uk/dementia

Arts funding has been secured to enable the Leeds based artist Paul Digby to lead a creative project of mosaic workshops with people living with dementia, their carer’s and families. Mosaic Leeds involves many community groups and local services, including the NHS, as partners: Dementia Cafes and Neighbourhood Networks across the city, the Council’s Peer Support Service for People Living with Dementia, Leeds Memory Service and Leeds Museums & Galleries.

This project will engage people living with dementia and carers in the city’s rich and cultural heritage, create opportunities for new experiences, re-connect people with lost experiences and interests, and aims to inspire community spirit. People will make a positive contribution to making Leeds a great place for culture and a Dementia-Friendly City.

West Yorkshire Playhouse has been awarded £99,950 from Arts Council England National Lottery funding to produce a Festival of Theatre and Dementia. Exploring the experience of living with dementia through creative activity, the Festival will create new opportunities for older people living with dementia, collaborating with them as curators and performers.

Community Contribution Research

The Centre for Ageing Better has employed OPM, a research company, to look at the main motivations of people aged 50 and over making a contribution to their community through voluntary activity and what the main barriers are for preventing people aged 50 and over from contributing more, or at all.

It has been agreed with OPM that this research will take place in the Recreations (part of Holbeck and Beeston) in Leeds, as well as three other areas nationally (in Bristol, Settle and Scarborough). OPM has recruited two community researchers within the locality, who will be trained to conduct peer research.

Next steps:

Establish priorities of work for physical activity across Leeds and develop an Active Ageing course and brand. Active Leeds is developing the older people physical activity training course to be delivered in March 2018 aimed at activity providers across Leeds. In parallel ‘fun’ activity for older people will be developed with a view to recruit champions and facilitate sessions from May 2018 onwards.

Yorkshire Dance will deliver three more Dancing in Time programmes at Holbeck Elderly Aid, Belle Isle Winter Aid OPAL Holt Park. These will be twice weekly contemporary dance sessions over ten weeks.

The next round of commissioning for the Time to Shine Programme will be completed with contracts negotiated to allow successful projects to start in April 2018.

The research company, OPM, will recruit and train more community researchers, who in turn will interview their peers locally. Initial findings will be analysed and published in Spring 2018.

Respect and Our ambition: Social Inclusion Ageing is promoted positively and older people feel worthwhile and valued as citizens of Leeds

Older people tell us… I want to be respected and included socially in my community; I don’t want to see stereotypes of older people; I want images to reflect the diversity of the older population. It’s not a crime to be old

Attitudes towards older people can be characterised by stereotypes and prejudices that can be highly negative. There is a need for cities to challenge such prejudices and nurture a culture of respect and inclusion towards older people in their society.

Older people in deprived neighbourhoods are at particular risk of social exclusion due to issues of poverty, deprivation and material disadvantage.

Leeds is committed to tackling these stereotypes through reducing inequalities and promoting positive images and stories about older people. A key part of this work is the continued development of intergenerational projects and activities which bring young and old together with the purpose of developing understanding and respect between generations.

Work to promote Age Friendly Leeds and positive ageing – A ‘Want to know more’ session on Age Friendly Leeds was held in May. These sessions hosted by the Public Health Resource Centre are aimed at professionals to improve their awareness and practice around the subjects covered. The session was well received with positive feedback. International Day of Older People (IDOP)

International Day of Older People is celebrated worldwide on the 1 October each year; in Leeds we stretch the celebration over a longer period to allow organisations to hold events to celebrate the contribution that older people make to the city. The theme for 2017 was Diversity of Older People and a range of events took place over the course of 15 days. Sixteen of these events received a small grant from the IDOP Leeds Community Events fund which is provided by the council and managed by Leeds Older People’s Forum. Read about some of the projects in the final report. Leeds City Museum had an overwhelming response to the invitation to people to make Forget Me Not flowers for a display in the City Museum’s Brodrick Hall to celebrate the International Day of Older People Thousands of hand crafted flowers were created by people and organisations across Leeds.

Forget me nots displayed on the giant map in the Brodrick Hall, Leeds City Museum

Leeds City Museum also ran its first poetry competition around the theme of ‘Growing Older’. The winners were read out at a celebration event at the museum on 1 October.

Age Friendly Charter

Following the production of a new Age Friendly Charter in October 2016, a steering group of older people has been formed, supported by the Time to Shine Campaign Officer to facilitate the roll out of the Charter. With fifteen active members from across the city, the group meets monthly. The group has welcomed a presentation from Highways on how pavement repairs are prioritised and resourced, and fed into the Leeds Health and Care Information Portal recommissioning consultation.

Most recently the group has developed the ‘Come in and Rest’ campaign to encourage businesses in Leeds to offer a seat to older people.

Intergenerational work Generations United is a new publication, produced by Leeds Older People’s Forum, showcasing these amazing intergenerational projects across the city. The report was officially launched on 25 September at the LOPF Celebration Event.

Leeds Grand Theatre The Fashionable Lounge

University of Leeds Fall into place Community Theatre Writing Back Generation Squad Project

The Writing Squad

Second hand stories

South Leeds Independence Centre, Kissing it Better

MAECare – Adopt a grandparent

Abbey House Museum and The Vintage Youth Club Decades of youth M & S Company Archive Sparkling Memories

A Happy Baby ‘want to know more’ session was held in September at the Public Health Resource Centre to coincide with Happy Baby week for workers who have direct contact with grandparents. Workers were provided with four important messages to enable grandparents to have up to date knowledge and skills to support new parents.

Next steps:

 A Come in and Rest toolkit will be developed and launched to engage with local businesses.  Further Happy Baby sessions are planned.

Communication Our ambition: and Information In Leeds all older people, their friends, family and support networks have easy access to information (in a format they are comfortable with) which makes their lives better.

Older people tell us… I know where to go for information about services, events and activities when I need it. I want information to be from a trusted source. I want information which is easy to understand and in a format to suit my needs. I want on port of call for information about what is going on in my area.

Having easily accessible information in a range of formats on all available services for older people and their support networks is vital. This also allows smart city solutions and products to be co-created and progress shared. It is also important that awareness of information sources and opportunities for local community participation are widely promoted in order for opportunities to be fully taken up leading to people having greater choice and control over their lives.

Progress so far: Communications –

Work is ongoing to improve and promote on-line information about Age Friendly Leeds to showcase the work of the breakthrough project, share best practice and link with partner age friendly cities and encourage organisations and services to pledge and sign up to the campaign.

A new URL has been purchased to better identify the web page and improve access - www.agefriendlyleeds.net - and this has been promoted across the Leeds.gov site and with partners. A proto-type of a new web page has been produced and is awaiting go-live, as part of the overall updated Leeds.gov site.

Social media is used to promote Age Friendly Initiatives including:

 The Age Friendly Leeds Twitter account @AgeFriendlyLDS which has steadily grown its membership and currently has nearly 1,118 followers.  Better Lives blog  LCC LinkedIn page

An e bulletin is also sent out regularly with information about activities, events, volunteering opportunities and news items to an Age Friendly mailing list. A summary of the quarterly update to the breakthrough project board is shared via this bulletin.

Digital Technology

Activage is a 42 month European project which uses digital technology including wearable tech, smartphones, watches, and a home hub with sensors to prolong and support the independent living of older adults in their living environments. The project started in January 2017 and has 300 sets of equipment, with 1000 people involved including carers and professionals. The three main uses for the technology are: 1. Daily Activity Monitoring At Home  Website for individuals, Doctors , family and care givers to access health records  Prescription exercise, calorie/water intake and medication reminders from Doctors and care givers  Exportable data for National Health Service Personal Health Records 2. Emergency Trigger  Fall detection system working on a smart watch  Fall Risk alert system – based on gait analysis over period  Identify lack of activity and notify named carer 3. Prevention of Social Isolation  Social isolation risk alert system – based on behaviour analysis done using energy data  Social games and community engagement using Council’s open data set

Proactive Telecare –started in June 2017 and is being piloted for one year alongside Telecare talk, it has funding from NHS England, and the equipment is from Tunstall. More than just a daily ‘are you alright’ phone call, the service offers two types of calls: support to changes to lifestyle to improve wellbeing, and general health messages.

The aims of this pilot are to: • Work with individuals with multiple long term conditions, socially isolated, frail older people, mental health conditions and people in early stages of dementia • Encourage service users to meet their personal health and wellbeing goals • Provide generic health promotion messages • Signpost service users to resources in their local communities to improve wellbeing • Link to strength based Social Care/Health Adult Social Care Integration approaches The project will be evaluated by Leeds Beckett University.

Leeds Directory

A review of the Leeds Directory, to inform future commissioning of the resource, is taking place. Soft market testing and consultation exercises have been completed, including service user testing of the existing site. Commissioning and outline Design Model have been agreed.

CareView app

A 12 month, academically evaluated trial is being carried out with funding of £70,000 from NHS England Integrated Care Pioneers –New Care Models, plus an additional £10,000 from winning the Medipex Innovation Awards 2017 in the GP and Community Care category.

The original digital developers, Dyhaan Design, have created a full working model of the CareView app from the prototype including a digital social isolation guide for users of the app. The academic evaluators of this project are mHabitat, a trading arm of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and are specialists in researching digital innovation.

The trial involves outreach teams from the Better Together city wide teams logging, or ‘pinning’ concerns via the CAREVIEW digital platform in the six, top 1%, most deprived priority neighbourhoods. A concern may be a building in disrepair, untidy card or post piling up. This may indicate the presence of a socially isolated resident. ‘Pinning’ puts a blob of light on a heat map. The heat maps are then followed up by door knocking and leafleting through the Better Together Outreach teams. This activity is to ascertain whether local community members require any help and support with their health and wellbeing. The council’s communities teams, graduates and public health officers plus the police have been assisting with this process. This activity helps the digital technical team to develop the heat maps in terms of colour

resonance and reach, this is working well. This has a significant impact on their effectiveness.

Next steps:

 A communications plan has been developed to promote the web page as soon as it goes live.  a monthly Better Lives blog feature putting the spotlight on Leeds Neighbourhood Networks – first article will be on Bramley Elderly Action.  Activage -Recruitment of Older People and Carers to commence  Further use of Telecare Talk   Look to develop a digital literacy strategy (across staff in house and commissioned) and citizens  Detailed work on Leeds Directory model to start.

Community Our ambition: Support and Older people have an increased healthy life expectancy Health Services supported by integrated health and social care services

Older people tell us…

I want prompt, accessible medical support: I want to be taken seriously; I want practical and emotional support where needed.

Health promotion and illness prevention are important measures of increasing the healthy life expectancy of older people in Leeds. Improving health may mean that they can retain their independence for longer thus improving their quality of life and reducing their requirement for services.

Progress so far:

Healthy Ageing A Healthy Ageing workshop has taken place which has identified three key work streams:  Active and independent – going forward, physical activity and the fall proof project will be reported under this stream.  Nutrition and Hydration  Mental Health and Wellbeing – there is an identified need to conduct an older peoples’ mental health needs assessment and audit of local activity against NICE guidance.

Make it Fallproof is a council and NHS led campaign to help people stay on their feet and reduce the risk of falling.

It includes:

 An information campaign with leaflets, dvds and information on the council website on how to reduce the risk of falling.

 Postural stability classes - a structured 20 week programme of exercise for people at risk of falls delivered by qualified instructors in a range of leisure centres and community centres across Leeds. The programme is designed for people with low mobility and focuses on improving balance, confidence and to reduce the fear of falling.

 Assessments for community based exercise providers to ensure they are delivering safe and effective exercise classes to people who are at risk of falls. A successful assessment gives a 'Make it Fall Proof' accreditation, which gives providers a range of support to enhance their programmes and allows them to bid for small grants to enhance their service. Details of accredited courses are on the Active Leeds webpage.

As part of a review of Single Point Urgent Referral (SPUR) there is a roll out of additional pathways for referral in to Gateway through Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS), Telecare and Care Homes to prevent and reduce accident and emergency attendances. The impact and outcomes are being monitored.

New initiatives for the Fallproof programme currently in development include:  a water based exercise programme  ‘Falls Champions’ for Care Homes  ‘Community Falls Ambassadors’ to raise awareness and prevent falls.  Roll out of single referral point for falls services and an integrated service between Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust;  Supporting urgent care work, including the frailty unit which opened in December 2017 at St James Hospital to provide dedicated care for older people who come into hospital (people aged 80+ or 65+ with frailty needs);  Additional funding secured to increase staffing within the Community Falls Service to support the enhancement of the service and to provide further community based falls classes.

Funding has been agreed through Integrated Better Care Fund to support the falls prevention programme of work to April 2020.

Supported Wellbeing and Independence for Frailty (SWIFt)

SWIFt focuses on frail older people and is funded by Time to Shine and by the three Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). Contracts have been signed with the delivery partners who are:

 Age UK Leeds - working as the city wide provider  Bramley Elderly Action (Neighbourhood Network Scheme) -focusing on Bramley, Swinnow and parts of Stanningley (West CCG)  OPAL (Neighbourhood Network Scheme)- working in the LS16 and LS17 areas of Leeds (North CCG area)  Crossgates Good Neighbours (Neighbourhood Network Scheme)- focusing on Crossgates, Halton and Colton (SECCG area)  Health for All - working in Inner South with a BME focus (SECCG area)

The project is receiving referrals from a range of sources with most coming from the hospital to home services. Clients are older people with poor health/complex health needs. Experience so far is that clients are experiencing multiple barriers requiring a high level of practical assistance before resolving underlying issues. 318 older people have been supported by the five projects since Autumn 2016.

The interim evaluation has been completed, based on a sample of 88 records, and has established that:

 There is evidence that the service has started to targeting the correct groups of people as the clients have higher levels of frailty and more long term conditions than expected for a similar cohort of people;  Overall this group of people consume more health and care resources than a seemingly similar group selected using a control matching procedure;  It is too early to evaluate the system impact of the service as the current sample is too small for meaningful analysis in the time scales allowed; less than 50 service users have been through the service for less than three months at the time of evaluation;  The proposed methodology and approach of using the Leeds Data Model and Controlled Matching can be used in the evaluation of the service.

Regular meetings with SWIFt providers are held to ensure the service model is joined up across the city. The meetings also offer an opportunity to share successes and challenges. The providers have also received training on non-clinical frailty assessment tools to support their work.

Further funding will be needed to continue this service beyond October 2018, and options are currently being explored.

SWIFt case study: Mr and Mrs H previously attended a lunch club together on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Mr H suffered a fall and had to have a hip replacement. Due to this, he was unable to leave the house. Regardless of being in his early 90s, Mr H made remarkable progress; the only thing that stood in his way was the long wait for grab rail that was needed for their front door.

Mr and Mrs H are a very close couple and rarely did things without each other. Mrs H also stopped going to lunch club. Before a recent diagnosis of dementia Mrs H, used to meet up with friends for coffee and attended a poetry club. However, after getting lost on the bus a few times, she decided she was not going out again on her own.

The family referred the couple to the project because they were worried that they were becoming isolated. Mr H enjoyed watching television and playing on his computer, however they were worried that Mrs H was not doing anything around the house.

The project worker started to visit the couple. Mr H was unable to come out due to the issue around the handrail and Mrs H did not want to engage initially. After a few visits, Mrs H agreed to go for walks with the project worker.

The project worker succeeded in building a positive relationship with the couple and eventually Mrs H agreed to come to the lunch club, first with the worker and eventually with assistance from volunteers. Mrs H enjoyed this and started coming on a regular basis. She also expressed an interest in the chair-based exercise and now attends regularly. Attending these groups alone, without her husband, has been a big step in improving Mrs H’s confidence in doing things alone without relying too much on her husband.

In the meantime, the family had made a referral for grab rails. They were advised that the waiting list could be up to 6 months. The project worker assisted with chasing up the referrals and in reiterating the need for the grab rails. Mr H is now able to leave the house (assisted by the handrail) and now regularly attends the lunch clubs again.

The project has helped both Mr and Mrs H to be able to leave the house again and attend regular social and physical activities to reduce their social isolation and improving their overall health and wellbeing.

Minimising the impact of cold weather and cold homes

Winter Friends is a public health initiative which has been ongoing in Leeds for the past three years. It is a citywide network of professionals and organisations all aiming to prevent excess winter deaths and reduce cold weather related illnesses among vulnerable people in our communities, with a particular focus on older people through the use of the winter wellbeing checklist and other free Winter Friends’ owl resources.

Tying in with the national Public health England campaign Stay Well This Winter, winter friends combat social isolation and fuel poverty which both remain a large concern for older people across the UK. The campaign is delivered in partnership

with the Warmth for Wellbeing service alongside Groundworks Green Doctors who are specialist environmental consultants and Care and Repair’s home adaptation service.

Planning for winter starts in the summer, an event was held on Tuesday 11th June in Leeds Civic Hall. 98 delegates attended representing the council, health and third sector organisations and heard from a series of guest speakers who shared their knowledge and experiences on the importance of interventions to keep people warm through the winter.

There are over 122 registered winter friends in Leeds from third sector organisations, statutory services such as the police and fire services, adult social care and housing departments. Winter Friends receive training to increase basic knowledge of high impact interventions such as flu vaccinations, medicine intake, falls and feeling connected to your community. In autumn 2017 33 winter friends briefing sessions and a further 19 electronic briefings were delivered to new organisations.

Free resources are available including:

 a thermometer card to be left in the home to raise awareness of the adverse effects of cold homes,  prompt cards for professionals to act as a reminder to ask open questions when they have contact with a potentially vulnerable person.  A winter wellbeing checklist which is to be left with the vulnerable person detailing the high impact interventions and contact details for different support and advice services across the city.  A winter friends badge;

Nutrition and hydration

The Older People Food Matters Group (OPFMG) established 2010 is a multi-agency group promoting food and drink messages and interventions relevant to older people The OPFMG has developed the Leeds Food Consensus which seeks to ensure consistent evidence based, person centred food messages for older people through four key messages embedded within the consensus:

The Older People’s Food Matters Group (OPFMG) promoted the Nutrition and Hydration Week across Leeds (13th – 17th March). Nutritional champions and partner organisations from across Leeds created a verity of awareness activities, and an open access Nutritional Champions training course was delivered to 17 people from various organisations.

Leeds Hydration week took place from 12th – 16th June and the OPMFG completed another raising awareness of good hydration. Partners were asked to consider their own hydration practice ensuring staff can practice their 6 – 8 drinks. 2000 ‘Eating Well as You Age’ booklets were distributed.

A second open access Nutritional Champions training course took place on 27th September to workforce from the third sector, home care and self- management champions.

Work has been completed to identify nutritional needs across Leeds which includes the audit of nutritional courses currently provided and gaps in provision. Information gathered from the audit has enabled a successful bid to the Integrated Better Care Fund (IBCF) to deliver a Malnutrition Prevention programme for one year across Leeds focusing on improving knowledge of malnutrition and dehydration for older people. This will include training to health and social care workforce, campaign materials and nutrition literature and a malnutrition hot line ensuring the Leeds system can receive further support on matters of malnutrition and dehydration.

Health and social care support

Neighbourhood Networks

A review of the council’s Neighbourhood Network Schemes has taken place which provided the opportunity to fully evaluate how well the current arrangements have worked, what changes have taken place within the market place during the lifespan of the current contract and how best to move forward from 1st October 2018 onwards. Workshops have been held with the Neighbourhood Network Schemes to discuss Dementia and Frailty.

The outcome of the Neighbourhood Network review is an uplift on the annual value of the contract of £564,967. This model will see a five year + five year grant award being made to individual organisations.

Care Homes

A major piece of work to review and re-commission care homes is taking place which aims to improve the experience of residents of care homes, to ensure there is a resilient provider market, and to make the most effective use of resources. The process includes extensive consultation with residents, families and older people and will be used to inform the service specification before going out to procurement. Consultation is being analysed, and a cost of care exercise for Care Homes to agree future fees is ongoing.

The Green Care Home was closed and re-opened as Community Intermediate Care beds.

Work with the Alzheimer’s Society on a project to examine how care homes can be community assets is ongoing; three care homes have signed up to participate.

Research work with the University of Birmingham on the implementation of the Care Act has commenced and will focus on neighbourhood networks and an Asset Based Community Development approach. Three neighbourhood networks have been identified to participate in the research.

Next steps:

 Work on the SWIFt evaluation will continue.  Start a mental health needs assessment and audit of local activity against NICE guidance.  Secure funding to enable SWIFt continue past October 2018.  Develop a grant agreement and application process for the Neighbourhood Networks funding. The grant application process is anticipated to commence in March 2018 and the new agreements will be in place for 1st October 2018.  Undertake an options appraisals with Care Home providers to shape the future commissioning model.  Carry out the research work with the University of Birmingham on the Implementation of the Care Act.

To Conclude

This breakthrough project takes forward a long history of work with older people in Leeds and aims for Leeds to be a city where ageing is seen as a positive experience that brings new changes and opportunities and older people have access to the services and resources they require to enable them to live healthy and fulfilling lives. It recognises the need to address the inequalities facing older people in different parts of the city.

Much progress has been made already but more remains to be done. Leeds exciting new partnership with the Centre for Ageing Better brings new resources to take forward older people’s housing, community transport and community contributions. We will continue to work with all our partners during 2017 and beyond to achieve our ambition for Leeds to be the Best City to Grow Old In.

For further information about this report please contact: Carole Clark Older People, Long Term Conditions and Cancer Leeds City Council Tel: 011 3783831 Email: [email protected]